Wolf's campaign rhetoric in U.S. Senate race sparks questions

Sunday

Tea party Republican Milton Wolf draws applause by punctuating stump speeches with pronouncements about an affinity for firearms and dislike of a politically influential relative.

Wolf, the primary challenger to three-term U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, speaks about buying a lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association, discloses possession of a Kansas concealed-gun permit and reveals his wife, Karrie, to be a more accurate shot than himself.

In the same breath, the Leawood physician identifies his favorite assault weapon and assures voters not everyone in his family thinks like distant cousin Barack Obama.

"My firearm of choice is the Ruger SR-556," he said. "I have hatred towards no man — only towards bad government that destroys our freedom."

At campaign stops, Wolf didn't repeat reasoning he shared with a federal firearms salesman for buying a pair of Ruger carbines six months before entering the race.

"Thanks again for helping Karrie and me get into the big black scary gun community," Wolf said in an email to the seller. "We'd love to give them a test drive with you guys sometime soon."

Anne Hodgdon, a prominent Kansas Republican, said she was uncomfortable with Wolf's repeated campaign references to the SR-556s. Her husband, J.B. Hodgdon, sold the weapons to Wolf. Wolf sent a note confirming the acquisitions in April and his campaign went live in October.

"It bothers me when people feel they have to own sexy guns to be a Second Amendment patriot," Anne Hodgdon said. "It was part of Milton Wolf creating an image for himself. He's playing a role. There are people buying into it."

Tea party uprising

The insurgent campaign by Wolf was endorsed last week by the Tea Party Express, which seeks to dislodge Roberts and other Republicans in primary fights. Roberts was elected in 1980 to the U.S. House and in 1996 to the U.S. Senate. Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor is seeking the Democratic nomination in August.

Wolf emerged as a political figure in 2010 while speaking out as a physician, second cousin once removed to Obama and opponent of the Affordable Care Act. He became a columnist for The Washington Times, a conservative publication started by the founder of the Unification Church.

Wolf trails Roberts in fundraising and polling, but his U.S. Senate bid was given a boost earlier this year amid controversy about Roberts' primary residence. The senator owns a Dodge City duplex, which has a tenant, and rents space in a separate house in the city. Roberts lives much of the year in Alexandria, Va. In campaign releases, Wolf now refers to Roberts as Virginia's extra senator.

"He hasn't lived in Kansas for at least 15 years," Wolf said.

The Topeka Capital-Journal published stories Feb. 23 revealing Wolf posted to his Facebook account gruesome X-rays of gunshot victims, including the image of a decapitated person. Wolf, a radiologist at Alliance Radiology, drew upon images taken at medical facilities in the Kansas City area. In Facebook commentary adjoining the X-rays, Wolf and friends made unpleasant jokes about the carnage.

In response to the stories, Wolf sought forgiveness for being "insensitive to the seriousness of what the images revealed." He asserted the material was dropped from the Internet "four years ago," but then said he didn't know the date. He initially defended the posts as educational, yet later blamed job stress. Wolf hasn’t disclosed whether he continued to post gory images to the Internet.

Two Republican state legislators who endorsed Wolf — Reps. Josh Powell, of Topeka, and Ron Highland, of Wamego — said they discounted past mistakes by Wolf and expressed irritation at what they considered unfair character attacks orchestrated by the Roberts campaign.

"I like him and respect him," Highland said of Wolf. "He, like many of us, feels like we may be heading in the wrong direction in our country."

"We need a change in Washington," Powell said. "We have individuals who have been there so long they've been changed by Washington culture."

John Altevogt, a former state and county official in the Republican Party, said the "clumsy" and "offensive" effort by Wolf's campaign to demonize Roberts, former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole and other influential Kansans wasn't a winning strategy.

"We're talking about people who have been in the trenches for 20 years," he said.

D.C. intrigue

While individuals endorsing Wolf remain supportive of his campaign for free-market and limited-government solutions to government problems, questions have arisen about Wolf's allegation the Internal Revenue Service engaged in politically motivated harassment of the doctor and that the White House attempted to get him sacked for exercising First Amendment rights.

"They sent the IRS after us," Wolf said in a speech. "I believe it was because of my beliefs."

In addition, he said, "The White House even tried to get me fired."

His audiences murmur in despair about descriptions of abuse by political operatives in Washington.

Wolf said he wouldn't wither under criticism by Roberts just as "I didn't back down from Barack Obama when he tried to intimidate me."

In an interview, however, Wolf clarified the IRS audit was performed on his company, Alliance Radiology. He said the audit was conducted in 2010 or 2011, but then said he wasn't sure of the date. Around the same time, Wolf said, the IRS put a hold on his personal income tax refund.

A story by The Kansas City Star last month described a pending lawsuit filed in 2012 by a physician and former employee of Alliance Radiology accusing the company of a "price-fixing scheme" to limit competition and boost X-ray fees. Wolf is a partner in the firm and has worked there since 2006. He wasn’t named individually as a defendant and referred to the suit as "frivolous."

In an interview, Wolf elaborated on stump-speech comments about the Obama administration attempting to get him fired.

He said a White House staff member didn't contact Alliance Radiology, but did telephone a Washington Times editor regarding Wolf's references in columns to a family connection to Obama.

"The White House was worried that the Washington Times was taking advantage of me," Wolf said. "They were requesting that the Washington Times respect the president's family and leave them alone instead of trying to pull them into politics."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.